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Court drugs search

COURT proceedings in Ballymena were halted last week and the main hearings room evacuated, while police with specially trained sniffer dogs carried out a drugs search.The police operation at the courthouse on Thursday was undertaken by officers from the local District Support Team and drug detection dogs, 'Jazz' and 'Marty.'PSNI Chief Inspector, Simon Ball, explained the search was in response to concerns expressed about people "coming into court carrying drugs" and discarding drug paraphernalia in the grounds.Chief Inspector Ball added the police, judge and Court Service officials "agreed to bring in the drugs dogs."He said the animals are trained to indicate whether a person is in possession of controlled drugs or has been in contact with drugs.The police chief confirmed there had been "six indications" and those individuals were taken to a private room for a search.He said no drug possessions were detected and there were no arrests.Chief Inspector Ball stated: "We want to send out a message that controlled drugs are not acceptable anywhere but particularly in a court."He added the police operation would be repeated without notice.